Re: Too many computers...

On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 23:43:33 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 10:56:28 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

>

On 1/19/2025 7:23 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>
>

 
In the meantime, maybe I should get rid of some of my computer games?
;-)

>

Aren't some of those games the reason for keeping some of the old computers?

>

Hey! Good point! And literally true; I built the WinXp and Win98SE
computer solely because some games from that era just don't run -or
don't run well- on modern operating systems and hardware.

>

And, of course, if I keep those computers because I have those games,
I obviously have to keep those games so I have something to RUN on
those computers!

>

I like this logic; it's so incredibly circular! Thank you! Six
Internet Points to you!

>
Do you even play old games?

Actually yes. Although usually not very long. ;-)

I tend to fire up old games fairly frequently. I just don't stick with
them. This is usually because

     a) they're either really, really good games (Ultima, Day of
        the Tentacle, etc.) and I've played the shit out of them,
        to the point where there's no mystery to them anymore, and
        I quickly get bored walking down the same path for the
        100th time, or

     b) they're really, really bad and I can't bear to stick
        around long enough to get to the end. This usually has more
        to do with control issues (oh Gog, did old DOS games have
        some terrible controls!) than production values (although
        anything with PC speaker is anathema to me).

But either way, I enjoy firing up the old classics for... well, their
historic value. To see what the games were like in the 80s and 90s,
and marvel at how much the developers managed to do with so little in
the way of computing resources, and compare to how far we've come.

I rarely play them long enough to actually 'count' as something I
played in our monthly "What Have You Been Playing" threads, though.
But just over the past few weeks, I've peeked at Loom, Ultima
Underworld, Kings Quest 6, A Mind Forever Voyaging, Crescent Hawks
Revenge, SimCity 2000, Links 386 Pro, and more.

Admittedly, most of my retro-gaming is done through emulation these
days. It's just easier overall (and more comfortable, since the old
computers don't have access to the Good Chair). But there are some
that just don't work well in emulation, or just feel better playing on
original hardware, and occasionally I will fire up the old, noisy
hardware to experience the originals on period-accurate hardware.